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Topic: What size wine fridge? (Read 1344 times)

Hi everyone,I am very excited to start making cheese at home and have decided to use a wine fridge for aging. What size would you recommend? I have found some very affordable 6- and 8-bottle fridges, but I'm not sure how many cheeses that will hold and how many I'd be making at one time. Any thoughts?

I bought an 18-bottle size second-hand, thinking it would be plenty big enough. It isn't!

If I use a 20-cm mould to press my cheeses, I can fit only one cheese per shelf, ttl 6 cheeses; if I use 12cm moulds, maybe 3 per shelf. OK at first, but when you want to age some cheeses for months or even a year, the shelves soon fill up. If I want to use an aging box I need to remove a shelf, so then there's even less space.

Consider the size of your moulds, the inner dimensions of the wine fridge, and how many cheeses you think you're going to be making. Also what kind of cheeses - aging boxes take up a lot more space than waxed rounds. Then double the number of cheeses - that's the size fridge you need (for starters....).

I first bought a 6-bottle wine cooler thinking it would be enough for a few months. Only after a few weeks it was already full. So I recently bought a 36-bottle wine cooler hoping it will be enough year-long. I'm keeping my 6-bottle wine cooler for air drying and brining. So, in the end, the 6-bottle wine cooler wasn't a complete loss.

I used one of these. Got it on sale at Best Buy for a lot less than this though, $179.00. Very small footprint, same as my wine cooler, and lots of room for cheese. You might check your local Best Buy.

Al, I'm starting over after awhile away. I had 3 refrigerators, each of which was for a dedicated cheese and after an early period when the ecosystems were finding themselves, they all worked out great.

This time, I'm staying humble, methinks...I've seen your thoughts on this model and wanted to ask you - many members complain of humidity (excess) with their uprights. No issues for you, yes? Does this model not have cooling coils on each shelf, then? Any ideas on a more compact model (say, no taller than 40", depth and width is less an issue). Thanks.

I purchased a new Sub-Zero wine cooler from Goemans Appliances to replace my old Danby one. With the old Danby one I was planning to use it for cheese production. However I got a few concerns...

1st, do I have to bleach the fridge before starting? or cleaning it with regular cleaning products as you would any fridge sufficient? Basically I do not want any extra bacteria growing and making the cheese taste weird.

Finally, because my Danby wine cooler is a bit aged 3-4 years at the very top back of the wine cooler it tends to create heat sometimes (but not always). This was one reason to replacing it because the 2 bottles that would sit there would sometimes come out not chilled enough. I do not want it affecting my cheese, so just wondering if this would potentially create an issue for me?

It does have coils on each shelf and teh humidity stays at 80-90% all on its own. No problems there.

Al, I'm starting over after awhile away. I had 3 refrigerators, each of which was for a dedicated cheese and after an early period when the ecosystems were finding themselves, they all worked out great.

This time, I'm staying humble, methinks...I've seen your thoughts on this model and wanted to ask you - many members complain of humidity (excess) with their uprights. No issues for you, yes? Does this model not have cooling coils on each shelf, then? Any ideas on a more compact model (say, no taller than 40", depth and width is less an issue). Thanks.